Tag Archives: business

Momentum, or what some think of as Newton’s First Law of Motion, “Every body remains in a state of rest or uniform motion (constant velocity) unless it is acted upon by an external unbalanced force,” not only applies to “every body” in motion but also to everybody.

It’s also the factor that makes the downer client or co-worker the downer on all occasions. They start their day off badly and by 10a are dragging everyone else down.

The opposite is also true, so all is not lost. There’s always (hopefully) one person in an office that can crack a joke at the worst situation and provide the best way out of the mess. We could all use more of them. Continue reading →

How many times have you heard it: You need to grow your followers and fans on social platforms to foster trust and growth of your brand.

Maybe you are sick of hearing this, but it’s very true. Someone who I have enjoyed following on Twitter and her blog for a while now is Mari Smith. She recently published the book, “The New Relationship Marketing.” If you didn’t believe the italicized sentence above, you will by the time you finish Mari’s book. Continue reading →

A series of opinion pieces last week by Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire business mogul Mark Cuban asserting that startups “should never hire a PR firm” got the PR world buzzing with outrage. But does he have a point or is it too general a brushstroke to paint that PR can “never” benefit a startup? Let’s look at the tape.

Momentum, or what some think of as Newton’s First Law of Motion, “Every body remains in a state of rest or uniform motion (constant velocity) unless it is acted upon by an external unbalanced force,” not only applies to “every body” in motion but also to everybody.

It’s also the factor that makes the downer client or co-worker the downer on all occasions. They start their day off badly and by 10a are dragging everyone else down.

The opposite is also true, so all is not lost. There’s always (hopefully) one person in an office that can crack a joke at the worst situation and provide the best way out of the mess. We could all use more of them. Continue reading →

A few weeks ago, I discussed some of the ongoing debate and insight within the PR profession about demonstrating our value among C-level executives. I wanted to dig into that subject a little further (it’s a personal interest of mine) with some fascinating research I found in MIT’s Sloan Management Review.

The authors’ basic point is that for many successful CEOs, who they align themselves with within their executive suite often comes down to assets and liabilities. That’s right; in a way, we can boil down the value of any company’s executives to whether they see the world as full of opportunities (asset enhancement) or full of threats (liabilities reduction). Continue reading →

Mel Brooks once famously observed that “it’s good to be the king.” It’s probably also pleasant to be Bill Gates or Michael Arrington. I’d even guess that some folks think it’s pretty good to be me.

What is it like to have responsibility for running a PR firm? You might be able to imagine the upside, but there are struggles too. Here are some of the pain points — and some of the issues that folks like me think about on a daily basis: Continue reading →

Ok, so I’ll admit it . . . I wrote this post a while back called “Give it Away . . . For Free!” sharing how free advice will ultimately pay off and bring good karma. And yes, I still stand by everything I wrote. But perhaps I’m seeing business bottom line with more of an ice cold eye than I once did.

On an episode of Kell on Earth, Kelly Cutrone struggles with people constantly asking for free advice, actually taking a cell phone call from the uncle of her daughter’s school friend. He inquired about his own business (whatever it was) and asked what he should be doing. But, Cutrone owns her own business (People’s Revolution) and she has to worry about paying her employees and getting food on the table for her seven year old daughter (oh, and paying for her country house in France…technicality). Constantly dolling out free advice sets her back in her day taking away valuable time from her paying clients. Continue reading →

Remember in 5th grade when your teacher told you there were NO stupid ideas? While I thought Ms. Goldfeder was trying to make the kid feel better we all laughed (read: ME!), I had NO idea that statement would turn out to be the best advice I could apply to the business world.

It’s no big secret that the US is in one of the worst recessions of our lifetime. And while every other person I knew became victims of cut-backs, my job seemed to be bulletproof. Our agency worked hard and the clients were happy, all was right in “Wonderland.” Of course with the state of the economy, the nagging thought was always in the back of my mind – if the client cut back I would be on the chopping block. Continue reading →

During another one of my random midday reads of interesting social media news and tidbits, I came across this fantastic BusinessWeek poll of CMOs. The big takeaway for me was that most CMOs think social media agencies are completely full of s***. Most agreed that those agencies have a pretty good understanding of what can be done with social media, the CMOs that were polled also noted that many of the social media agencies they have dealt with have no clue about business, the nuances of their client’s industry, who their clients’ competitors are or how social media can help a business get ahead of its competitors. Continue reading →